WEF and U.S. Department of Energy Collaborate to Accelerate Wastewater Infrastructure Development

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in support of the DOE Better Buildings Wastewater Infrastructure Accelerator. This initiative engages state, regional, and local agencies working with water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) to accelerate innovative approaches to sustainable infrastructure.

“WEF is committed to providing a platform for water sector innovation, focusing on approaches and technologies that benefit utilities on the path to sustainable energy management,” said WEF Executive Director Eileen O’Neill. “To that end, we are excited to be collaborating with DOE to promote the benefits of the accelerator initiative.”

The MOU partners will work together to promote the initiative, to encourage innovation by WRRFs to accelerate improvements in energy efficiency, and to facilitate technical peer exchange opportunities focused on sharing best practices and solutions. DOE staff attended WEFTEC 2016 to discuss the next steps in the program.

The goals for the accelerator include

demonstrating best-practice approaches and tools to achieve sustainable wastewater infrastructure that provides examples for other facilities,

documenting model plans toward sustainable infrastructure that will help generate future innovations in the water sector,